Human hair becomes soiled due to its contact with the surrounding environment and from the sebum secreted by the scalp. The soiling of hair causes it to have a dirty feel and an unattractive appearance. The soiling of the hair necessitates shampooing with frequent regularity.
Shampooing cleans the hair by removing excess soil and sebum. However, shampooing can leave the hair in a wet, tangled, and generally unmanageable state. Once the hair dries, it is often left in a dry, rough, lusterless, or frizzy condition due to removal of the hair's natural oils and other natural conditioning and moisturizing components. The hair can further be left with increased levels of static upon drying, which can interfere with combing and result in a condition commonly referred to as “fly-away hair,” or contribute to an undesirable phenomenon of “split ends.” Further, chemical treatments, such as perming, bleaching, or coloring hair, can also damage hair and leave it dry, rough, lusterless, and damaged.
A variety of approaches have been developed to condition the hair. A common method of providing conditioning benefits to the hair is through the use of conditioning agents such as cationic surfactants and polymers, high melting point fatty compounds, low melting point oils, silicone compounds, and mixtures thereof.
However, there still exists a desire for hair conditioning compositions which provide improved conditioning benefits such as smooth feel and reduced friction. A variety of approaches have been developed to obtain such conditioning benefits For example, PCT publication WO2006/138201 discloses a hair conditioning composition comprising a silicone polymer containing quaternary groups and a gel matrix, the gel matrix comprising a cationic surfactant, high melting point fatty compound, and an aqueous carrier in claim 1. PCT publication WO2006/138201 also discloses, in Examples, the hair conditioning compositions in which the cationic surfactant is Behenyl trimethyl ammonium methylsulfate/chloride and which further contain SF1488 silicone copolyol.
However, there remains a need for hair conditioning compositions which provide improved benefits such as reduced friction in a variety of gel matrixes such as those using a different cationic surfactant.
Additionally, there also exists a need for hair conditioning compositions which provide clean feel and/or reduced tacky/heavy feel, while providing such improved conditioning benefits. Regarding such clean feel and/or reduced tackiness, there exists a need for hair conditioning compositions providing such benefits on both wet and dry hair. Clean feel and/or reduced tackiness on wet hair include, for example, ease-to-rinse feel. Ease-to-rinse feel are, for example, fast reduced slippery feel, and/or increased clean feel after starting to rinse the hair. Such reduced slippery feel, and/or increased clean feel can be a signal for consumers to stop rinsing the hair conditioning compositions, while remaining sufficient amount of deposition of conditioning agents on the hair.
None of the existing art provides all of the advantages and benefits of the present invention.